Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 6 • Spring 2007
Lake Erie
Basin Update - Ontario Side
Cold Water Sulphur Spring
found in Buckhorn Creek
By Cherish Elwell, Niagara Restoration Council
In 2001, the Niagara
Restoration Council (NRC)
identified a cold water sulphur
spring that drains into
Buckhorn Creek as a potential
barrier to fish migration.
The existence of sulphur
springs in the Niagara region
was not a new discovery; but
the potential for these springs
to act as barriers to fish
migration was a cause for
concern. In fact, several cold
water sulphur springs have
been identified in the Niagara
peninsula. These springs are all
quite similar – temperatures
range between 9 and 10 °C
year round, they smell of sulphur, and are blue-grey in color.
In 2006, with financial assistance from the Great Lakes
Sustainability Fund, and in partnership with the Niagara
Peninsula Conservation Authority, the City of Hamilton, the
Glanbrook Landfill Coordinating Committee and Niagara
College, the Niagara Restoration Council employed Biotactic Fish
and Wildlife Research to determine if the Buckhorn creek sulphur
spring was a natural environmental feature and if it was a
chemical barrier to fish movement.
A series of experiments was conducted, the first, showed that
the cold water spring at Buckhorn Creek produces a chemical
barrier that extends about 500 meters downstream during low
flow periods.
Electrofishing surveys revealed fish were present both upstream
and downstream from the spring, suggesting that fish passage
is possible. It was determined that these springs are of natural
origin and that the Buckhorn Creek sulphur spring contributes
to biodiversity with regionally (and perhaps globally) unique
purple sulphur bacteria, primitive cyanobacteria and other
species worthy of conservation.
It was determined that the
Buckhorn spring is not a
complete barrier to fish movement
during high flow events
like the spring freshet
which stimulates many fish
species to migrate upstream.
Approximately 500 meters of
habitat downstream from the
spring is unsuitable for fish
during low flow conditions. The
spring contributes to base-flow
in the creek, especially during
summer, and upstream and
downstream from the “reaction
zone”, a multitude of fish,
insect, amphibian and reptile
species were observed. It is
therefore concluded that the
Spring does not produce a complete barrier to fish movement
throughout the year, and does not require remediation.
The Niagara Restoration Council is interested in locating
previously unrecorded cold water sulphur springs. If you are
aware of the location of a potential cold water sulphur spring
please contact us via niagararestoration@becon.org, or phone at
(905) 788-0248. This study was presented at the Great Lakes
Sustainability Fund conference in December 2006 and the
American Fisheries Society Ontario Chapter Annual General
Meeting in March 2007. Copies of the final report will be
available via our website at www.niagararestoration.org.
For more information on this study please contact
Dr. Chris Bunt, Biotactic Fish and Wildlife Research
cbunt@biotactic.com, or visit the Biotactic website
at www.biotactic.com.
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